To epidural or not, that is the question, Update pg 15

I am being induced on Thursday after 3 weeks of bedrest for pre-e. I will be 38.5 weeks. They are going with a more aggressive induction of breaking my water and starting pitocin right away vs. a prostaglandin wait and see approach.

I was sort of induced with dd for PIH at 40 weeks 3 days -- my midwife started with vaginal cervadil and my water broke almost immediately. I had such terrible back labor for 12 hours over night that I didn't sleep at all. I had wanted to go med free, but ended up requesting an epi at 6 am, they administered at 8 am, but I was only 6 cm dilated (I started the process at 4). After the epidural, I was able to sleep for 4-5 hours and had a calm, relaxed birth - 8 pushes, no tearing. It was like being at a spa. I only had to have pit for about 15 minutes and didn't feel any of those contractions.

My midwife is out of town. One of her partners, as well as the maternal fetal specialist OB (because I am high risk) are tag teaming my induction. I am scared of the pitocin. I am afraid that I will be limited in my pain management strategies and that this is going to be horrible. Several friends have advised me to get the epidural early, since not having pit is not an option. As I had a successful epi before, I am not as scared of the epi as I am of pit.

What would YOU do?

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If God exists, she's pro-choice

Progressive, socialist natural-minded mom to K (5/30/09) and I (10/26/12)

I had Pitocin but no Epidural or any other pain medication. It was intense but at the same time it was over in total of 5 hours. Everyone I know that had epidural needed more pitocin and then more epi, more pit, more epi... It dragged in for hours and hours, and most ended up with a C-section after all that anyway. I would avoid epidural again, regardless of whether I needed pitocin or not, if I ever gave birth again. Seeing my baby completely alert and not drugged up was worth going pain med free for me.

I did end up with a c-section. They took me for it so fast that had I not already had the epidural in, they likely would have had to put me out for his birth and I'd have missed it.
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I had a similiar experience. :-(